Hush analysis

[jeeva]

Hi there,

My name is Laura and I'm a final year student at the University of Lincoln. As a part of my dissertation I am analysing Hush as a part of my project...

please help!

I need your brainy Buffy brains to discuss how characters relate to other texts. For example how The Gentlemen relate to The Mask, Nosferatu, Hellraiser and so forth.

Your help will save my bottom from becoming numb and my brain bursting.

[Nikki]

Welcome to the forum! I've moved your thread to the general Buffy section

[Wolfie Gilmore]

Welcome. Interesting parallel with Nosferatu - star of a silent film and creatures who impose silence.

There's also an uncanny resemblance to the creatures in the 1998 movie Dark City:

http://imdb.com/gallery/ss/0118929/Ss/0118929/1-5.jpg?path=gallery&path_key=0118929

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_City_%281998_film%29

What's the focus of your argument? Any particular direction you're interested in taking it in? That'll help with the discussing of references/intertextuality here. Are you thinking about conscious references or textual echoes that may or may not be conscious? Obviously that's a hard thing to tell... but, just wanted to know your perspective?

[jeeva]

Gold Star To You

*gives a gold star*

Thankyou so much for your reply, that is exactly the kind of thing I am looking for....

My project is an exploration of horror with the result of producing a horror poster at the end of my project.

I am using Buffy as a text for analysis as it is full of horror genre goodness. I am particulary interested in its use of intertextuality with other horror texts, not just the characters but also the aesthetics of the texts.

I need refferences to colours, the use of light and dark and so forth...

As an example: the mist that is the voices of Smallvilles people is reminiscent of the mist that appears in Bram Stokers Dracula when his ghost ship appears on the British shoreline. Also intertextual with films such as Speilberg's Poltergeist...(more refferences welcome)

[carousel_girl8]

Another film that it relates very closely to is The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. I had a chat about this in a film seminar and we were talking about how Joss seems to have been influenced by German Expressionism for this episode. Hush is a very dark episode that I think could easily have been made in black and white and it is very weird just like German Expressionism. The clock tower is very eerie and would easily fit in with this style of film.

[jeeva]

Thankyou, a gold star to you too

German Expressionism is something my tutor keeps nudging me towards so what you are saying makes perfect sense.

can you reffer any books or journals to me that i may be able to use to suggest that horror and GE are linked?

[carousel_girl8]

I know there are loads of books about The Cabinet of Dr Caligari, I think AFI have written one. You could maybe look for books to do with the Horror Genre see if they include german expressionism. I take it you have studynet right? If you check on there you'll probably find loads of journals about this. Sorry thats all I can suggest.

[jeeva]

thankyou, i shall get a move on with the research...thankyou again!!!

[stormwreath]

One connection that struck me is the capering lunatics in straitjackets that accompany the Gentlemen - reminiscent of Renfield's mysterious connection to the Count in the original Dracula.

You could probably tie in the theme of lack of communication to books/films about alienation, from Metamorphosis to Invasion of the Body Snatchers. (Though in 'Hush', the enforced silence actually gets people communicating more, which is pretty much a subversion of the theme.

[KingofCretins]

It might sound trite, but if you have or can get your hands on the DVDs, listen to Joss' own commentary. I know for a fact he talks about some of the ideas that went into the look and mannerism of the Gentlemen and their henchmen, and having the writer's own reasons available might help your analysis.

[jeeva]

I have actually made notes on the dvd commentary and it has helped me tremendously!!! On them it also touches on the Renfield link, which I also noticed... Dracula is a text that I am keen to use as an example of intertextuality and its influence on the horror genre....

this all very good stuff that you guiys keep giving me

[Wolfie Gilmore]

One connection that struck me is the capering lunatics in straitjackets that accompany the Gentlemen - reminiscent of Renfield's mysterious connection to the Count in the original Dracula.

Ooh yes, me too. I sometimes find them even more creepy than the Gentlemen.

You could probably tie in the theme of lack of communication to books/films about alienation, from Metamorphosis to Invasion of the Body Snatchers. (Though in 'Hush', the enforced silence actually gets people communicating more, which is pretty much a subversion of the theme.

Riffing on the Invasion of the Body snatchers, I find Hush reminds me of various invasion themes - strangers come to town, alter it in some way. Usually by killing everyone in it. There's something very Tim Burton about the design of the episode, and Mars Attacks always pops into my head when I watch the Gentlemen move - that gliding way they have with them, rather like the martian woman in Mars Attacks (who's possibly a robot now I think about it).

Hush taps into a lot of common horror tropes. Screaming being no use - in Hush's case, because it doesn't summon help... but, as with the subversion re silence bringing enhanced communication, the scream - the gesture of helplessness in horror movies - becomes an agressive act, one that saves the day. So, by being a girlie princess girl, Buffy kicks monster butt. There's some very complex feminist stuff going on there that would be fun to unpack, in terms of Buffy as a remade version of the horror heroine.

So, although I don't suggest that this is an allusion, might be interesting to think about it in relation to Scream - comic horror in which there IS still horror, which I think works for Hush, because it's still bloody scary. The bit where you suddenly realise the Gentlemen and their straight jackety minions are gaining on Tara makes me brick it every time